When will FC Barcelona move back into the Camp Nou? How are construction works going?

FC Barcelona haven’t played in the Spotify Camp Nou since May 2023, with the iconic stadium turned into a construction site ever since as the club renovate their home. 

The Catalan giants planned to move back into the Camp Nou during the 2024/25 season, but the works have been marred by setbacks and delays.

On June 25, the club officially announced their return to the stadium: August 10, 2025.

They will return for the Joan Gamper Trophy game, a special annual preseason event for Barça.

It is still unknown how many people will be able to attend.

The return will be partial, as the club has asked La Liga to play their first games of next season away from home, with the Camp Nou unlikely to be ready to host competitive matches until September or October 2025.  

Remaining works include the completion of the new third tier, the dual VIP ring, the roof installation, and the final touches to various interior spaces, as well as the urban development of the stadium’s surrounding area. 

Reduced capacity

Whenever Barça move back to their historic home, it will only be at roughly 60% capacity for some months or even over a year, as construction continues on the third ring of stands. 

Half-built stadium in summer 2024

Ahead of the season kickoff, the stadium still looked only half built, with lots of frameworks and initial structures visible from the surrounding streets. 

The third tier of the stands had to be fully demolished and will be constructed again during 2025, to be fully ready by 2026. 

The club say that work is progressing “at a good pace,” but delays in a project of such a grand scale as this are common.

An area of 73,500m3 was demolished in the first year of works, with 425,000m3 excavated and 7,850,000kgs of steel put in place, as well as 54,900m3 of concrete. 

More than 1,200 workers are helping build the new Camp Nou, and they are currently focusing their work on the upper tier's metal structure, the partitions inside the stadium, and first and second tier seating placements. 

The works can be watched live as a nearby resident is live streaming the stadium from his apartment.

A total of €1.5 billion will be invested in the renovation works.

All in all, the Camp Nou stadium won't be ready until the 2025/26 season.

The club expects to finish the stadium works completely by August 2026, when it will have a capacity of 105,000 and an underground parking lot with up to 4,000 parking spaces.

However, this termination date was given when the club expected to return to a reduced capacity Camp Nou before the end of 2024. 

Officials from the club have yet to give a revised date on when the full capacity new Camp Nou will be open.